During my first ever tutorial, when art in Jeddah felt like a haze I was unable to penetrate, I talked to Jonathan about an art cafe I had discovered called Arbab al Heraf. It inspired a wonderful, artsy, curious discussion with wonderful, artsy, curious people and, you could say, it was the springboard for me exploring and understanding art in Jeddah. One of the things that emerged from that discussion was the idea that I could set up interviews with celebrated local artists. The stories that emerged would be a piece of narrative art in and of itself.
Finally that project is coming together and we’re calling it “Artisans of Love”, a name selected by the community I am collaborating with. This community is called Arabian Jewel and I simply love how they are always onboard with any and every artistic endeavor.
Artisans of Love has a simple enough proposal. We will identify, contact and set up interviews with well known artists. We will ask simple questions, expect long, rambling and amazing responses. We will video record those responses and compile them. We’re hoping the project will culminate in a small event where we can invite those we interviewed and have them give a small talk each and play a section of their videos as well as invite the rest of the artistic/art-loving community, have some coffee, meet some kindred spirits. Simple enough!
The first interview is set up and I will be blogging about it as soon as it is concluded. I just need to figure out six questions that we can ask. I will edit this blogpost and write them here as soon as I think of them!